Sit and Dream
by Xzeihoranth
Summary: A quiet moment on the way out of Columbia's Hall of Heroes.


Booker DeWitt grumbled to himself. While he and his charge Elizabeth were making their way out of the Hall of Heroes, having confronted both his old friend Cornelius Slate and a few of the demons DeWitt's past had to offer, he noticed the girl was yawning like clockwork every two or three paces. Much as he wanted to be free of this mad city in the sky, he'd stopped and asked if she wanted to take a rest. She accepted gratefully and eased herself down onto a nearby bench. Her head had begun to nod almost immediately, and like the gentleman he most certainly was not, he'd stripped off his jacket and offered it to her as a pillow. Elizabeth had taken it with a smile as big as the one he'd seen her wearing on the beach, rolled his jacket into a nice bundle and stretched herself out along the bench. She was asleep in under 5 minutes.

So here they were, the beauty and the beast. The beast had planted Vigor traps near all the doors into and out of the room they were in, on the off chance the local constabulary mounted another armed assault such as the one he and the girl had almost walked headlong into when they jumped off the skylines. The beauty meanwhile slumbered on. Although the hard wooden bench was a far cry from whatever mattress she'd had back in her tower, she didn't seem all that bothered by it. As DeWitt turned his gaze from the entrance to the sleeping girl to his left, a frown flickered across her face and she reached out her hands to him, like she was searching for something. "Wonder what that's about. Did that bird give her a teddy bear to sleep with? Is that what she's after?"

A sudden mad impulse struck him, and he was seized with the desire to take Elizabeth's hands with his own as they brushed his leg briefly. With every ounce of willpower he had, he fought down that strange feeling and stepped backward so as not to be further tempted. _"Jesus DeWitt, get ahold of yourself."_ he thought angrily to himself. _"You can't go getting attached to her; odds are once we reach New York you'll never even see her again."_

Elizabeth, still soundly asleep, snatched her hands back as if she'd been shocked. Her breathing changed abruptly, becoming much more shallow and fast-paced, and she was muttering indistinctly. Booker leaned in to try and catch what she was saying, when her eyes flew open and she sat bolt up right with a gasp of shock. "Hey, you okay?" he asked as he crouched beside her. She stared at him blankly for a moment before memory set back in. "Oh, Mr DeWitt! I'm fine; iiit was just a dream." she stammered.

"Must've been a hell of a dream" he said as blandly as he could as the girl put a hand to her chest and tried to calm herself.

"It started out nice enough. I was remembering a trip I took when I was young. I don't even remember where it _was_; all I can see when I think of it now..." Elizabeth closed her eyes and tried to recall something. **"I dreamed I saw a great wave climbing over green lands and above the hills. I stood upon the brink. It was utterly dark in the abyss before my feet. A light shown behind me, but I could not turn. I could only stand there... waiting." **she recited.

"That didn't sound like It was you saying it." Booker commented as he got to his feet and stretched.

"It wasn't; I saw it on a piece of paper in that place." She pounded a fist lightly against her leg in frustration. "I wish I could remember more...!"

"I'm sure it'll come back to you." he murmured as he unholstered his machine gun. "But it's almost dawn; we better get a move on."

"Almost DAWN?" Elizabeth asked in shock. "Why on Earth did you let me sleep this long?!" She scrambled upright and brushed off her dress.

"You looked like you could use the rest!" Booker grunted in response as he inspected the weapon.

"Paris waits for no one, Mr DeWitt! We must not disappoint her!" she scolded him. He rolled his eyes.

"It's a city, Elizabeth. It's not..." As he turned to face his charge however, he saw the look on her face and the words dropped off his tongue silently. _"Think I'd better be careful with this one." _Booker mused to himself as he followed her out the front doors. _"If she turned those puppy-dog eyes of hers on high, there's no telling what she could get me to do..."_


End file.
